Fintan O'Dowd

Fintan O'Dowd (1915-) was Taoiseach of Ireland from 1 January 1957 to 1 July 1961, succeeding Colm O'Farrell and preceding Finbar Brannigan. He was also leader of of Fine Gael from 1952, succeeding Donagh Quinlan.

Biography
Fintan O'Dowd was born in Wexford, County Wexford, Ireland in 1915 to a family of Catholic Irish teachers. O'Dowd worked as a math teacher before being elected to the Dail Eireann as a Fine Gael member in the sweeping victory of 1946. He nearly lost his seat in 1950, but tirelessly campaigned to defend his seat, and he remained one of the few Fine Gael list members to survive the electoral disaster.

O'Dowd became leader of Fine Gael following the resignation of Donagh Quinlan in 1952. O'Dowd was a member of the new, more progressive generation of Fine Gael leaders that Quinlan had represented during his two-year tenure as party leader, and O'Dowd continued this new tradition. O'Dowd supported Fianna Fail's austerity measures that successfully eliminated Fiachsteria in 1956, while also preparing to turn against these policies in order to win the 1957 general election. O'Dowd promised an end to the austerity measures, and he formed a Fine Gael-Sinn Fein coalition government, the Gluaiseacht Poblachtach Forásach. O'Dowd passed progressive legislation such as outlawing capital punishment, adopting a social justice-based criminal system, raising social spending, and granting equal rights to minorities, but he also covertly supported the Irish Republican Army's terrorist campaigns against the United Kingdom, partially as a favor to his Sinn Fein coalition partners. In 1961, the GPF was defeated by Fianna Fail, which returned to power under Finbar Brannigan with the goal of lowering taxes.